The Washington critic., 1887-10-10
WASHINGTON, OCTOBER 10, 1887
A RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT.

n kfdhltuiG hA'''''~H'-
The decision Of Judge Smell In the
case wherein Professor Krausc of the
National Rifles Band charges certain
parties with n conspiracy to damage
and break up his business Is OF interest
10 every employc rs well as employer,
for the reason that it iudicially defines
the relations subsisiing between the
two, and while denying no just right
10 the one, maintains fully the equitable
immuni,lCs Of the other
1t is a right Of labor, which IS not de-
MED, to organize for It's self protection,
TO resist encroachmen's and 10 main
tain the highest scale Of wages CON
sistcnt with reason and Justice.
Incident to this right is that freedom
of action which shall permit labor, iu.
dividually as well as collectively, to
make It's own terms, Independent of all
violent or unlawful dictalion.
1t is also the right OF capital, or the
employer Of labor, to make such con-
tracts as may he mos, satisfactory AMI
advantageous 10 itself without outside
Interference.
To deny any of these privileges, and
especially as they are inhibited by
what Is known as the boycott, is to set
up species Of terrorism inconsistent
with the principles of civil liberty and
10 provoke resistance that convulses
the very foundations of society.
The points In the case which has
just been decided have been reviewed
by Judge Smell with great thorough.
ness and diligence. He has gone back
to remote precedents and followed the
line of decisions with regard to con-
spiracles, step by step, down 10 those
of the present day. Everywhere and
In oil ages he finds the law 10 be upon
the side of personal liberty In this
matter; of personal exemption from
unwarrantable invasion of the rights Of
men In all vocOtions of life to be secure
in their own jurisdiction over their
own business.
1t is not only the law, but 1t Is com.
mon sense; and Judge Smell is to be
congratulated and commended upon
having given both, so clear and EN-.
phatic an Interpretation.
So are employer and employe to be
congratulated. The same rule must
obtain In their relations as obtains be.
tween man aud man in their freedom
OF tp'nion and habits of life; between
the head of one family and the head of
another In their systems of home rule.
As every mans house is held to be
his castle upon which no other man
may trespass, SO is every mans bust.
ness his fortress Of support which no
other man may assail with impuuity.
The citizen has the same right to
pursue certain calling, secured by
law In such methods Of its pursuit
as lie may adopt, that he has tc
choose this certain calling in the frs
place.
Erect any other standard for the
regulation Of labor or business than IT.
absolute independence of molestatioI
and you plant the germs of volcanic
disturbance.
The boycott, an Infamous exotic II
itself, with which no American citize
should ever have soiled his hands,
the worst form of assault upon tn
equities of our social condition. 1t
justified neither In law, justice nor req
SOD. Its perpetuation would sooner o
later culminate in arnachy with all It
horrors. No free people can submi
10 1t and long preserve their freedom.
THE Chicago Inter Ocean finds Il
The late tremendous outpouring of tn
people to welcome the President to tbs
city resplendent tribute to American
loyalty, and reads from It o suggestiv,
lesson to discontented and restiv
minorities. 1t tsays:
II only Anarchists and other treasonabl
revolutionists would consider yesterday
lesson they would be converted to decen
members of society. For II great party
whose candidate only missed the Presidenc
by the miscarriage Of about thousand vote
IN New York, can be enthusiastically loyal t
the President who was elected by an almos
fortuitous act, how much more reasonable
II to expect that a faction whose number Is al
but infnitesimal in the count OF the NatiO
should acquiesce in the declared will of tina
vast majority, which Is for the maintenance
of the law and Constitution of the Unite
StatesY
The acquiescence of the people q
the United States In the verdicts of tn
ballot box, in the determinations O
judicial tribunals, In the laws an
statutes that are enacted for the proteC
tion of property and maintenance {
order, forms their crowning virtue an
furnishes the surest of all possibl
guarantees to the stability of o.
civil institutions. Not until this Writ
is impaired by disappointed gree
for office or thwnrted ambitions, {
gross infidelity on the part of those II
trusted with the Government, is dangt
of revolution, disruption or retrogre
sion to be feared. 1t is strange thl
even The Anarchists, unfamiliar as the
may be with the principles Of tue Cor
stitution and perverse as their politics
teachings have been, should not hay
read this lesson sooner and read
Alright.
In the case of the Virginia coupon
It looks as though the United Statt
courts had rather the advantage Of I'll
State Legislature. If Judge Bond ca
suspend a law of the State and in
prison the States Attorney. General fc
enforcing the law, the old doctrine {
States Rights would seem to be badl
crippled. But Virginia should not 81
cede from the Union for little thin
like that. Attorney General Ayre
will doubtless be let out on writ q
habeas corpus, and 1t Is barely possibl